A3 Artwork on an A4 Scanner
The problem: your scanner has an A4 flatbed, and your artwork
is A3 - twice as big.
No prizes for guessing that you'll need to scan the artwork
in two sections, but it can be a fiddly operation. Here are a
few tips to help things go smoothly:
The big problems with scanning in sections is that one scan
may become slightly skewed compared to the other. Check that the
sides of the paper are straight (some artists trim their own paper,
apparently with their teeth!), and always line the same side of
the paper up with the scanner bed. Since the drawings you're scanning
won't always be square to the edge of the artwork, this will mean
at least that they're skewed by the same amount.
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| A3 art on an A4 flatbed scanner. Note the
tape (circled in green) used to secure the artwork. |
- When you're sure you have the artwork lined up properly,
secure it with tape. It's remarkable how much it can move while
you're lowering the scanner lid.
- Try and scan the image so there's at least 1cm overlap common
to both scans. That's what you'll use to line the two scans up.
 |
| In the scanner interface, crop as closely
as you can to the panel borders (as shown by the green line)
to keep down the file size. |
- Now scan the art in Line Art/Bitmap mode, resolution 600dpi,
scale 100%. Scan as little of the page margins as possible, to
keep file size down.
- In the Edit Menu, use Rotate Canvas... to turn the scanned
image the right way up.